Deafhood: Your Journey -...

Deafhood: Your Journey

David Eberwein, Genie Gertz &

Ella Mae Lentz

Rochester, New York

March 29, 2008

© 2008, Eberwein, Gertz & Lentz

Deafhood Concept

Paddy Ladd University of Bristol United Kingdom


Message from Paddy Ladd


Our Deafhood

Journey


Museum of

deafness


Define the sign „DEAF‟

(in English: the generic word „deaf‟)

(without reference to „hearing‟)

Reflection


“…today‟s problems cannot be solved without a sound

understanding of the past.”

Tage Erlander Sweden‟s former Prime Minister


The Deaf World

Before 1880


The Paris Deaf School

• Established by l‟Epee in 1700‟s

• Birthplace of academic and formal Deaf

and Sign Language community

• Results


The Paris Banquets

• Deaf speeches aimed to

illustrate the highest levels

of Deaf philosophies

• Influential hearing persons

invited

• Most speeches translated

to French and printed Ferdinand Berthier

Ladd P. (2003). Understanding Deaf Culture: In Search of Deafhood. Clevedon, England: Multilingual Matters Ltd.


Excerpts from the Records

“[Sign Language] easily wins out over all the separate limiting languages of speaking humanity… Our language encompasses all nations, the entire globe.”



Pre-Milan Discourse

…an “incomplete” man according to these [Deaf] gentlemen, a “wretch” deprived of the language of mimicry…having to resort to a pencil to converse with the evening‟s heroes. An expression of ineffable pity could be read on their faces at his approach.

-Mottez


Tenets of Paris Banquets‟ Discourse

• Deaf people were highly literate in English and other languages

• Sign Languages cross international boundaries

• Signing is a gift to hearing people

• Deaf‟s existence should not be called into question

• Deaf people have the potential to become the world‟s first truly global citizens


By the 1870s, Deaf people…

• established and administered schools

• edited hearing newspapers

• were artists and publishers


• Established in 1864

• Result of Paris school and Clerc‟s training

• Deaf people were highly literate in English

and other languages

Gallaudet University


BUT…


“The deaf believe that they are our equals in all respects. We should be generous and not destroy that illusion. But whatever they believe, deafness is an infirmity and we should repair it whether the person who has it is disturbed by it or not.”

-Propser Meniere (1855)

Brueggemann, B. J. (1999). Lend Me Your Ear: Irhetorical Constructions of Deafness. Washington, DC: Gallaudet University Press.


September 1880

International Congress on

Education of the Deaf

Milan, Italy


1880: The Milan Conference

• 164 delegates in attendance

• Only 1 Deaf in attendance (James Denison- Kendall School principal)

• “…the Pure Oral Method ought to be preferred”… passed with only six in opposition

(James Denison, Edward Miner Gallaudet, his brother Thomas Gallaudet, Isaac Lewis Peet, Charles Stoddard, & Richard Elliott- a British teacher)

Van Cleve, J. V. & Crouch, B. (1989). A Place of Their Own: Creating the Deaf Community in America. Washington, DC:

Gallaudet University Press.


Alexander Graham Bell

• Advocated oral education

• Claimed to invent a telephone while trying to make a hearing aid

• In 1921, honorary president of the Second International Congress of Eugenics

http://www.italianhistorical.org/MeucciStory.htm

http://www.esanet.it/chez_basilio/us_bell.htm


We should try ourselves to forget that they are deaf. We should try to teach them to forget that they are deaf.

Alexander Graham Bell (1884)



I admit the ease with which a deaf child acquires sign language and its perfect adaptability for the purpose of developing his mind; but after all it is not the language of the million of people among who his lot is cast.

- Alexander Graham Bell (1884)


Colonialism


Colonialism

The destruction and replacement of

indigenous cultures by powerful

cultures:

• Language

• Way of thinking and acting

• Conception of world and society

• Values



Colonialism of the

Deaf World:

1880-present


• Teacher training programs

• Science

• Technology

• Education

• Parent discourses

• Research funds

Colonialism of the Deaf World



The colonialist mind may be impervious to most forms of logic.

- Paddy Ladd

Colonialism


Colonizing American Deaf Education

• 1880- the Milan Conference

• 1882- 7.5% of students taught orally

• 1900- 47%

• 1905- 51%

• 1919- 80% (approximately)




The Rise of Oralism

After 1880: a sharp decline in…

• Educated Deaf people

• Deaf teachers & administrators

• Deaf people with high-level occupations

• Deaf people with language




Post-Milan Discourse

Since Oralism was everywhere, Deaf

discourses were now limited to…

• defending sign language

• defending the Deaf existence



Reflection

Envision a current Deaf World where

128 years of Oralism never happened


Effects of

Colonialism


Other Characteristics of Colonialism

• Systematic development

• Colonizing society delegates work of running colonies to „specialists‟

In Deaf colonization, these are drawn from:

• Scientists

• Medical Professionals

• Educators



Effects of Colonialism As a result of the fragmentation caused by

colonialism…it has created minorities within our minority group…

• Differing languages and communication systems

• Differing attitudes and behavior…leading to aggression and conflict towards one another.



Deaf communities‟ energies are spent in two directions at once;

1- external; defending gains or resisting oppression 2- internal; rebuilding and strengthening the community by making explicit its cultural beliefs

Effects of Colonialism



The effect of colonialism…reduced Deaf

communities to a kind of “subsistence level”

• Sports organizations OK

• Political & artistic domains damaged

• Our club, organizational experiences

Subsistence Level



Effects of Colonialism “When Deaf children receive such shamefully

oppressive education, it is not only the individual who is damaged, but the community (as well).”

“Oppression visited on Deaf children is in fact a double oppression.”



The most important success of colonialism is NOT “Deaf versus hearing”, but setting…

Colonialism‟s #1 Success

Deaf against Deaf!



Pockets of Resistance (1880 - 1960‟s)

• Gallaudet University

• Associations of the Deaf

• NAD‟s films (1910‟s)

• Deaf clubs

• “1001 Victories”

• Deaf mutes (added by E. Lentz)



Critical

Examination


Unexamined . . . . . . . . . . Examined

Critical Examination


“victim-blamer” - “victim”

Blaming the Victim


Deficit thinking is tantamount to the process

of „blaming the victim‟. It is a model founded

on imputation, not documentation.

Valencia R. (Ed.) (1997) The Evolution of Deficit Thinking: Educational Thought and Practice. Washington, DC: The Falmer Press.

Deficit Thinking


• Blaming the victim

• Oppression

• Pseudoscience

• Temporal changes

• Educability

Theory of Deficit Thinking


A child may sign a lot of information and get it right, but get criticized for signing it. Yet for just pronouncing two words correctly, they get praised. That leads to an obsession with “getting it right”, but only with regard to very small things. Or big things will be picked apart for very small reasons, or there is an obsession with small details of procedure, not the wider picture.

- a Deaf community member in UK


deafness Deafhood


“The unexamined life is not worth living.”

- Socrates


A level of consciousness, existence, or reality.

Dimension


DEAFHOOD!

Linguistic Minority

Human Rights

Social Welfare

Medical


Medical


• Deaf person = helpless isolated hearing-

impaired person

• Goal = restore that person to society

through technology and Oralism

Medical Dimension (deafness)


Social Welfare

Medical


• Aims to solve “problems of deafness”

• Sees Deaf person as a client or a reason

for charity

Social Welfare Dimension


Human Rights

Social Welfare

Medical


• Aims for equal opportunities (“access”)

• Supports disability discrimination

legislation (i.e. ADA)

Human Rights Dimension


Institutionalized prejudices based on auditory

and speech competency.

Audism


Linguistic Minority

Human Rights

Social Welfare

Medical


• Sees oralism as genocide or ethnocide

• Aims for bilingualism (natural Sign

Language and written system of majority

language)

Linguistic Minority Dimension


Linguicism is a language-based form of audism.

Linguicism


DEAFHOOD!

Linguistic Minority

Human Rights

Social Welfare

Medical


Recognizes and preserves Deaf people‟s potential and desire in collective sense.

Deafhood Dimension


Realizes the Deafhood experience has much to offer to:

humanity,

science,

academy, and

Deaf people now and in the future.

Deafhood Dimension


Reflection

From which dimension(s) does your Deaf

organization operate?


DEAFHOOD!

Linguistic Minority

Human Rights

Social Welfare

Medical


Medical

Social Welfare

Human Rights

Linguistic Minority

Deafhood


Deafhood

• A term to counter the central colonizing term of „deafness‟

• A term which reflects the true reality of our experience

• Deafhood represents all the possible ways of being Deaf, past, present or future, regardless of oppression‟s limitations.



deafness vs. Deafhood

• A process, not a state

• Cultural and linguistic

• Normality

• Collectivism

• Recognized

• Beliefs & values

• Medically oriented term; a state

• Condition

• Abnormality

• Individualism

• Diagnosed

• Handicap


Liberation

Colonial liberation or independence

cannot be successful without the

de-colonization of the mind.

- Wa Thiong‟O


Liberation

Deafhood = a process to de-colonize our mind,

body, and spirit from colonialism.


Discourse


Discourse

… the world is not simply „there‟ to be talked

about, rather, it is through discourse itself that

the world is brought into being…



Post-Milan Discourse

Virtually all discourses about Deaf people

have been conceived, controlled, and written

by people who were not themselves Deaf.


Oralist Discourse

• Voice = living soul

• Deaf = animals

• Deaf = „disgraced beings of nature‟

• “Virtual unanimity of preference for oral teaching”

The crucial moment of this transformation was colonialism.



Framing

Frames are mental structures that shape

the way we see the world.

Lakoff G. (2004). Don‟t Think of an Elephant: Know Your Values and Frame the Debate. White River Junction: VT:

Chelsea Green Publishing.


Reflection

“Deafhood”

“Deaf”

“passionate”

“challenge””

“activist”

“Deaf-centered”

“ASL=English”

“clear position”

“healthy family”

“deafness”

“hearing loss”

“angry-crazy”

“attack””

“militant-radical”

“too Deaf”

“too much ASL”

“must neutral”

“parents decide”


Reframing

Reframing is changing the way public sees

the world.

Lakoff G. (2004). Don‟t Think of an Elephant: Know Your Values and Frame the Debate. White River Junction: VT:

Chelsea Green Publishing.


deafness

deficit thinking

unexamined

Deafhood

possibility thinking

examined

Paradigm Shift


Establishing Our Center

“Once a clearly positioned „center‟ is

established, then refinements can be made.”


Deafhood

Resurgence

1960‟s and on


Resurgence of Deafhood

• Proliferation of signing among lay people

• Increased number of Deaf “grassroots” in

academic fields, especially in ASL and Deaf

Studies fields

• Changing public perception of ASL and

Deaf people (Lane, Sacks, etc.)

• Deaf centered bilingual-bicultural

education gains credibility


Increase in… • Signing Deaf people in leadership positions

• Deaf owned businesses

• TV programs, films, and plays with Deaf people

• Books and films by Deaf people

• Vlogging and blogging by Deaf people

Resurgence of Deafhood


BUT…


Backlash from Oralism

• Mainstreaming

• Closing of Deaf schools

• Restricting Deaf leaders and teachers

• Cochlear Implants

• Genetic engineering


Effects of Backlash

Yanking discourses back to a sense of

desperation, rather than(re)discovery.


Effects of Backlash

Today‟s Snapshot

• 69% of families don‟t sign

• 84% of schools don‟t use language

• Only 10% of schools use languages

• 76% of children are schooled alone

• 66% are un- or under-employed

• Only 6% of teacher programs are bilingual


Deafhood Values Challenged

• “Why should we be allowed to continue being born?”

• “Is our existence a biological mistake?”

• “Or have some larger forces ensured our presence in human diversity?”

- Paddy Ladd, 2005


What Do We Do

Now?


Deafhood Activism

• Be collective and vigilant

• Examine and understand colonialism

• Oralism recognized as a child abuse

• Appreciate our allies

• Alliances not compromises

• Honor our Deafhood heroes

• De-colonize the Deaf community!



“Where there is no vision, the people perish…”

Proverbs 29:18


where being Deaf is celebrated

and never condemned.

A Deafhood vision

for a world…

Adapted from California Association of the Deaf‟s Letter to Gallaudet Board of Trustees.


where academic excellence

in a natural Sign Language is

critical and never compromised.

A Deafhood vision

for a world…



where Deaf-related concerns

are "heard" and never ignored.

A Deafhood vision

for a world…



where false divisions among Deaf people are discarded and natural diversity is embraced.

A Deafhood vision

for a world…



so our future generations can dream big, think deep, sign freely, and walk proudly as Deaf people.

Embrace Deafhood now…



www.deafhood.us

Thank You!!!

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